By Juliette Jardim
June 29, 2009

Michael Brown, CEO and co-founder of City Year, outlined his In School and On Track: A National Challenge  initiative for the nation's mayors, during the morning Plenary Session on June 14 at the 77th Annual Conference of Mayors in Providence, RI.

"It is very exciting to be among the nation's mayors. City is literally our first name. We share with you a great passion for the success of cities, for young people, and for education, and we are inspired by your daily and tireless leadership for our nation's cities," Brown said.

The City Year program is a mentoring program that sends young adults into high schools with high dropout rates, and into the elementary and middle schools that feed into those high schools, to mentor struggling students and keep them on track to graduating.  According to Brown, they can tell as early as the 6th grade whether or not a child will drop out of high school. In addition, a student gives up on school  every 26 seconds in America, and over a million students drop out every year.

City Year Corps members work with struggling students on three fronts: attendance, behavior and academics. At the Plenary, several Corps members related their successes citing both quantitative improvements on math and literacy tests in addition to qualitative progress in behavior and dedication.

"I know that I have made a difference this year from an increase in 85 percent of my students' literacy and math scores on the standardized DC tests and from improvements in their attendance and behavior in school and out," said one City Year Corps member.

Describing his In School and On Track program, Brown explained, "First and foremost, it's a challenge to America's young people to help America's children succeed, it's also a challenge to all of us, to help them do just that."

Twenty cities throughout the nation have already introduced City Year programs into their struggling high schools including Providence, Seattle, Philadelphia, Miami and Washington (DC). City Year is rapidly expanding and gaining increased support, partially due to the immense  praise it has received from prominent members in the education community including U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Chancellor of DC Public Schools Michelle Rhee.

Brown concluded by saying, "Our message to you today is that national service can be a resource to assist you as you take on the challenges in your communities." For more information about the City Year program, visit the website www.cityyear.org.